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Liability issues unanswered in Malaysia Flight 17 crash

Investigators have been met with challenging circumstances at the scene of last week's downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Unraveling and determining liability in the incident – let alone achieving

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Liability issues unanswered in Malaysia Flight 17 crash

Mike Snider, USA TODAY 10:12 p.m. CDT July 20, 2014

Ukrainian State Emergency Service employees search for bodies among the wreckage at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, near the village of Grabovo, on July 20, 2014.(Photo: Bulent Kilic, AFP/Getty Images)

Crash investigators have been met with challenging circumstances at the scene of last week's downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in the Ukraine.

Determining liability in the incident — let alone achieving reparations for the victims' families — will likely be just as arduous, experts say.

The flight, which originated in Amsterdam and was bound for Kuala Lumpur, on Thursday was hit by a surface-to-air missile and crashed in a battle zone held by pro-Russian militants rebelling against Ukrainian troops. All 298 on board, including 80 children, died in the crash.

The location of the crash, the ongoing conflict and the potential for Russian culpability will likely frustrate the process of investigating and reaching a definitive outcome in regards to liability, says Mark Dombroff, an aviation and transportation attorney and partner at McKenna Long & Aldridge, a Washington, D.C., law firm.

"It's a big damn mess, and it's a tragedy on any number of levels," says Dombroff.

Some attorneys have speculated that the total liability could approach $1 billion. But payouts to victims' families will more likely be in the tens of millions, said Dombroff, who was involved in legal proceedings after the 1983 shooting down by the Soviets of Korean flight 007 and the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States.

Under international law, airlines are responsible for about $154,000 for each passenger, regardless of whether the airline is found to be at fault. Even if courts double or triple the airline's liability, he said, the total would be less than $140 million.

In the case of the lone American, Quinn Lucas Schansman, who had dual U.S.-Dutch citizenship, a U.S. court might award additional damages in the millions.

"It is much too early to comment on reports of this tragic incident while details are still being confirmed, except to extend our deepest sympathy to all those affected by this crash," said insurance firm Allianz, which provides Malaysia Airlines' liability and aviation hull coverage, in a statement. The firm, it said, "stands by to support our client as fully and quickly as possible."

Even if the separatists or Russians are found to be at fault, that doesn't mean reparations will be forthcoming.

It's unlikely that plaintiffs would collect any money from the separatists, Dombroff said, and the Russians probably wouldn't even show up in court. "Anybody can sue anybody they want, but that gets you some headlines for a day or two and then frustration for years," he said.

In the case of the bombing of the 1988 Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, it took 20 years before families of the victims were compensated by Libya, he noted.

Investigators at the crash site in eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border, face threatening conditions. "You are basically on a battlefield," Dombroff said. "You make the best of it."